Our trip to Ireland - April, 2007
Our trip to Ireland – April 1 – 7, 2007 - Chapter One
We went through a travel agency in Ireland and did an escorted tour through the southern part of Ireland. This particular company operates throughout Ireland and Scotland. This was our first trip to Ireland. Our journey started with our flight out of the Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky airport on Saturday, March 31. The weather was fantastic! We checked our bags and got our boarding passes. We then
had to go through Security which meant we had to remove our shoes,
put all lose items in a plastic bin, and run our carry-on bag and toiletries bag (zip lock sandwich bag)through the X-ray-ers. When we stepped inside the metal detector streams of air were shot at us which always takes one by surprise, I think. We landed in Chicago at the O’Hare Airport. Illinois is one hour behind Ohio—
something I was not aware of ahead-of-time. When we got off the
airplane in Chicago, therefore, I got all flustered as I was worried that
we should hurry to get to our airplane for fear of missing it! We
hurried along the airport hallways using the moving floor (flat
escalator) then going outside and catching a tram which took us to the
correct terminal. It was really humid, and I felt sweaty in my clothing
and out of breath after running around that much! We finally made it
to the correct terminal then to the correct gate to catch our flight.
When we arrived at the correct gate we found a lot of people waiting to
get on the plane to go to Bangalore. All I could think of was George
Harrison’s song, “Bangledesh”. I didn’t want to get on that airplane by
mistake! Several of us sat on the floor waiting for our chance to hear
the announcement about loading. I felt as if I were already in Europe
somewhere waiting to board a cattle train! The announcement finally
came over the loud speaker to board the Aer Lingus plane. We boarded
the plane that would take us to Shannon, Ireland (at least that’s what I thought). Up until now we have been riding on pretty cheap airlines which shall remain nameless. The first airplane which took us from Cincinnati to Chicago had a few First Class passengers on it. This meant they got a can of soda, and we didn’t! Aer Lingus was truly much classier! We enjoyed in-flight movies. We had a delicious meal and were served beverages. All of us were treated like we were in First Class! It was wonderful! We landed in Dublin Airport then stayed on the airplane as the same plane took us on to Shannon. That was a surprise to me, but I didn’t mind.
When we landed in Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland we went quickly through the Customs gate without problems as we didn’t have anything to declare, so no one cared! We got our luggage off the carousel. We then proceeded to the CIE desk where we were met by two of their representatives. They took our suitcases and treated us like special visitors. I had watched the movie, “The Matchmaker” earlier. In that movie Shannon Airport was featured, but I didn’t see a gigantic mosaic of President Kennedy on display anywhere at the airport as was shown in the movie. Again we learn about Hollywood’s way of depicting things “in the movies”! Later on I asked our guide about that picture. He told me that the picture I am talking about is located in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but I didn’t see it there either?? Oh well! The only thing in Ireland I saw that resembled what I saw in that movie was the front of the Shannon Airport!
We boarded a bus and headed off for our first stop for the night—Bunratty Castle. This was the nicest hotel we stayed at during our entire trip. The location was beautiful. We did have to laugh about the light switches. We couldn’t figure them out for anything. I had to call the desk clerk and ask them about how to operate the lights in our room! I couldn’t find any switches on the lamps. I found wall switches but couldn’t figure out how to turn things on. When I was able to get ahold of the hotel desk clerk I was told that I would have to put our door key in a slot and keep it in there in order to use all the lights. I tried that then was able to make ALL the lights turn on at once. I still couldn’t figure out how to turn the lamps off. When you pulled the card out of the slot ALL the lights went out. It was truly fun trying to get up in the darkness to go to the bathroom late at night without being able to see to find the door key. I knew even if I found the door key and put it in the slot all the lights would come on then I would worry about shining the bright lights in Greg’s eyes while he was trying to sleep. Later on after we went to bed I had to get up and ended up looking like a blind woman walking around our hotel room trying to get to the bathroom only to find my rear-end sitting on a cool porcelain seat as Greg was the last one to go and had left the seat up!
We had a towel warmer in the bathroom which was wonderful after taking showers! We had a magnified and lighted mirror that swung out from the wall. I thought to myself, “Now these are things I want for back home! I could actually see to pluck my eyebrows!
When we first got to our hotel I tried to rest up a bit. Ireland is 5 hours ahead of our time in the USA. Illinois is 1 hour behind us in Ohio. Even though the airline stewardesses on Aer Lingus are the best in the world I had truly had enough of flying after 12 hours of sitting in airplanes to get to Ireland. In fact, before we got off the Aer Lingus airplane I told one of the stewardesses how much I had enjoyed riding with them. The stewardess asked me to explain why. They were so nice to us, the service was wonderful, and the airplane had so many nice amenities and was clean to boot! She gave me 2 medium sized bottles of champagne wrapped up in bags and said, “Take these to celebrate your first night in Ireland”!
Look for Chapter Two!
We went through a travel agency in Ireland and did an escorted tour through the southern part of Ireland. This particular company operates throughout Ireland and Scotland. This was our first trip to Ireland. Our journey started with our flight out of the Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky airport on Saturday, March 31. The weather was fantastic! We checked our bags and got our boarding passes. We then
had to go through Security which meant we had to remove our shoes,
put all lose items in a plastic bin, and run our carry-on bag and toiletries bag (zip lock sandwich bag)through the X-ray-ers. When we stepped inside the metal detector streams of air were shot at us which always takes one by surprise, I think. We landed in Chicago at the O’Hare Airport. Illinois is one hour behind Ohio—
something I was not aware of ahead-of-time. When we got off the
airplane in Chicago, therefore, I got all flustered as I was worried that
we should hurry to get to our airplane for fear of missing it! We
hurried along the airport hallways using the moving floor (flat
escalator) then going outside and catching a tram which took us to the
correct terminal. It was really humid, and I felt sweaty in my clothing
and out of breath after running around that much! We finally made it
to the correct terminal then to the correct gate to catch our flight.
When we arrived at the correct gate we found a lot of people waiting to
get on the plane to go to Bangalore. All I could think of was George
Harrison’s song, “Bangledesh”. I didn’t want to get on that airplane by
mistake! Several of us sat on the floor waiting for our chance to hear
the announcement about loading. I felt as if I were already in Europe
somewhere waiting to board a cattle train! The announcement finally
came over the loud speaker to board the Aer Lingus plane. We boarded
the plane that would take us to Shannon, Ireland (at least that’s what I thought). Up until now we have been riding on pretty cheap airlines which shall remain nameless. The first airplane which took us from Cincinnati to Chicago had a few First Class passengers on it. This meant they got a can of soda, and we didn’t! Aer Lingus was truly much classier! We enjoyed in-flight movies. We had a delicious meal and were served beverages. All of us were treated like we were in First Class! It was wonderful! We landed in Dublin Airport then stayed on the airplane as the same plane took us on to Shannon. That was a surprise to me, but I didn’t mind.
When we landed in Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland we went quickly through the Customs gate without problems as we didn’t have anything to declare, so no one cared! We got our luggage off the carousel. We then proceeded to the CIE desk where we were met by two of their representatives. They took our suitcases and treated us like special visitors. I had watched the movie, “The Matchmaker” earlier. In that movie Shannon Airport was featured, but I didn’t see a gigantic mosaic of President Kennedy on display anywhere at the airport as was shown in the movie. Again we learn about Hollywood’s way of depicting things “in the movies”! Later on I asked our guide about that picture. He told me that the picture I am talking about is located in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but I didn’t see it there either?? Oh well! The only thing in Ireland I saw that resembled what I saw in that movie was the front of the Shannon Airport!
We boarded a bus and headed off for our first stop for the night—Bunratty Castle. This was the nicest hotel we stayed at during our entire trip. The location was beautiful. We did have to laugh about the light switches. We couldn’t figure them out for anything. I had to call the desk clerk and ask them about how to operate the lights in our room! I couldn’t find any switches on the lamps. I found wall switches but couldn’t figure out how to turn things on. When I was able to get ahold of the hotel desk clerk I was told that I would have to put our door key in a slot and keep it in there in order to use all the lights. I tried that then was able to make ALL the lights turn on at once. I still couldn’t figure out how to turn the lamps off. When you pulled the card out of the slot ALL the lights went out. It was truly fun trying to get up in the darkness to go to the bathroom late at night without being able to see to find the door key. I knew even if I found the door key and put it in the slot all the lights would come on then I would worry about shining the bright lights in Greg’s eyes while he was trying to sleep. Later on after we went to bed I had to get up and ended up looking like a blind woman walking around our hotel room trying to get to the bathroom only to find my rear-end sitting on a cool porcelain seat as Greg was the last one to go and had left the seat up!
We had a towel warmer in the bathroom which was wonderful after taking showers! We had a magnified and lighted mirror that swung out from the wall. I thought to myself, “Now these are things I want for back home! I could actually see to pluck my eyebrows!
When we first got to our hotel I tried to rest up a bit. Ireland is 5 hours ahead of our time in the USA. Illinois is 1 hour behind us in Ohio. Even though the airline stewardesses on Aer Lingus are the best in the world I had truly had enough of flying after 12 hours of sitting in airplanes to get to Ireland. In fact, before we got off the Aer Lingus airplane I told one of the stewardesses how much I had enjoyed riding with them. The stewardess asked me to explain why. They were so nice to us, the service was wonderful, and the airplane had so many nice amenities and was clean to boot! She gave me 2 medium sized bottles of champagne wrapped up in bags and said, “Take these to celebrate your first night in Ireland”!
Look for Chapter Two!
posted by The Celtic Contessa at
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